


20 Years of Falling in Love

by echoingsentiment (xAradarsi)



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Children, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Marriage, Marriage Proposal, Minor Jake English/Dirk Strider, Minor John Egbert/Vriska Serket, Minor Rose/Kanaya, Same-Sex Marriage, Underage - Freeform, sex in future chapters
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-05-26
Updated: 2013-09-15
Packaged: 2017-12-13 00:24:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,981
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/817777
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xAradarsi/pseuds/echoingsentiment
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Your name is Dave Strider, and you have been alive for a total of 25 long years. But the amazing thing is that for 20 of those years you knew exactly who you were going to marry.</p><p>And today that was happening, you were marrying the boy you were in love with since age 5.</p><p>John Egbert.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Dragons & Pillow Forts

It’s been exactly 25 years since you were born. It’s been 20 years that you’ve known who you were going to marry. You suppose that he probably didn’t realize until he was 20, but you knew from the time you were 5. And you suppose that, that is why you are so nervous as you stand at the aisle waiting for him to show up. As soon as you see him come through those open doors, you are thrown back 20 years.

Back to when you were 5 years old, and met a boy named John Egbert.

“Bro… I dun wanna go to school.” You look up at your brother, who’s tall and in his thirties. He’s wearing his shades, and you are wearing yours. He pets your head, and pats your backpack, pushing you towards the big overwhelming building in front of you. “Look kid, you are going to go in there, and tackle that class like a Strider. You are going to be the number one cool kid of your class Lil’ dude. C’mon Dave, you can do it. I bet you go in there and meet your best friend for life.”

You palm his face, squishing it between your hands and smiling a big smile at him. “Alright Bro, I’m gonna be the bestest!” He chuckles and ruffles your hair. “I know you are Lil’ man. I know.” He waves watching as you waddle your way into the school, greeted by a teacher who takes your hand and leads you to your classroom. You are led down the hallway into the green room, where Mrs. Butter teaches all of the daytime kindergartners. The classroom is filled with pretty stars hanging from the ceiling, and instead of your normal table and chairs, there are beanbags sitting in a circle with little wooden desks in front of them.

Mrs. Butter smiles at you, smelling a lot like strawberries, which you don’t really mind because strawberries were good. She pushes you towards the beanbags with a little smile and says; “Go on Dave, you can go set anywhere you want. Don’t you worry about your shades, your Bro let us know about why you keep them on Dave.” You smile back up at her, and she pats your head lovingly. You notice that she’s really pretty. She has brown hair and round glasses, and a really big belly. You find out later that she’s pregnant and going to be having a kid delivered by the baby bird deliverer.

You waddle your way over to the farthest beanbag away from every one of the other kids, you don’t really want to tell your Bro, but you’re actually scared of kids. Dirk says kindergarten was easy for him, and set him to be the best cool kid. You hope that you can see him before Bro picks you up. Dirk is three years older than you and in the third grade, even though the teachers want him to skip a grade; Bro said he needs to graduate with people his age. You don’t really understand, but it makes you happy that you and Dirk are going to the same school.

Slowly more and more kids flow into the classroom and sit around you, none of them sitting by you. They all seem to already know each other, forming groups of friends already. You just moved here, so you don’t really know anyone in the neighborhood. You take off your backpack and pull out the sketchpad that Bro bought you for school. You loved drawing and coloring, so he bought you your own sketch pad to draw in. He said it was practice for when you became a “big star artist”.

You are in the middle of drawing the arm of your newest creation when you hear the beanbag shift beside you and a bright gasp comes from it. “Ooooohhhh! That’s cool! What is it?” You look up and sitting beside you is a boy with wild black hair and the biggest blue eyes hid behind square glasses. He smiles at you, and you notice he has the biggest two front teeth ever and he’s missing a few already. “I’m John!” He holds out his hand for you, and you look at it for a minute before clasping yours around his and shaking.

He laughs loudly and shakes back. “What’s your name?” You pause for a moment, trying to find words. You weren’t really good with talking to people other than your family. “D-Da-Dave…” You stutter it out softly and he smiles real wide again, nodding enthusiastically. “Dave! That’s a nice name! So what are you drawing?” You find a smile gracing your lips as you point back to your drawing. “This is a dragon! See he has sharp teeth and really big wings!” He leans over and looks at it, smiling.

“It looks really cool! But what about the tail?” You tilt your head to the side. “The tail?” He nods again really fast. “Yeah it’s gotta have a cool tail too! Everything about Dragons are cool! The tail has to be too!” You perk up and nod. “What about a tail with spikes?” He makes an amused sound and nods, you scoot over and he moves into the other side of your beanbag chair as you start adding on stuff to your dragon. He makes lots of suggestions and sometimes you turn them down, but he never gets upset he just nods and says; “You’re right! Instead let’s go with this!” And then mutters off another idea.

The two of you draw the dragon together until Mrs. Butter starts talking. “Alright guys! Everyone can hear me right?” Everyone replies “Yes!” and she nods. “Alright, well then, let’s go around and introduce ourselves alright?” You and John fall quiet, sitting beside each other as he never moved back. You learn about your classmates, there’s a girl with black hair that says she really loves fashion and wants to be a fashion designer. There’s an angry red head that says his favorite things are romance movies. You listen zoning out a bit until it lands on John who smiles.

“I’m John! I’m five years old, and my favorite color is blue, and I like spaghetti and chili, and I really love animals, but dad says we can’t have any. I really love Nic Cage and Con Air is my favorite movie ever! When I grow up I want to be a music teacher!” Mrs. Butter smiles. “Do you play any instruments John?” He nods and gives her a big smile. “I play the piano! Dad says I’m really good at it too!” She laughs and nods, before turning to you. You panic.

“U-Uh…” You aren’t sure what to say, and everyone is staring at you. You think a couple of people are giggling too. You can feel your face start to heat up when you feel a pudgy hand wrap into yours and give a squeeze. Looking down you see that John is holding your hand and you smile. “I-I’m Dave, I’m five years old, and my favorite color is red. I like apple juice and mac and cheese and I collect dead things. They’re really cool, uh… I wanna be someone famous when I grow up!” Mrs. Butter smiles at you and nods. “That’s great Dave!”

Mrs. Butter continues to introduce people, and you look over at John who’s listening to everyone intently. He doesn’t notice you staring, but when he does he turns to you and smiles, squeezing your hand again. You find a smile on your face again, and listen back to all the kids introducing themselves. Eventually you are all given coloring pages to color which letter of the alphabet matches to the picture. You and John have a lot of fun with your crayons with the sharpener. Snack time comes quick and you learn that John can’t have anything with peanuts because he’s allergic to it. He even has to carry a pen in his backpack in case he does.

He says it’s got medicine in it for him to be okay if he does eat peanuts. Because of that he brings his own snacks, just like you do. Bro says he didn’t want you to eat just junk food at school. You and John trade food, as his food is way better and sweet and he says he doesn’t want them. You share the last piece of chocolate by breaking it in half. When nap time comes Mrs. Butter brings out blankets to set over the beanbags. She realizes that you and John are sitting at the same desk, and asks if you want to separate.

John looks at her as if she’s gone insane and says; “Nu-uh! Dave’s my friend! I don’t wanna sit anywhere else!” That statement makes your heart swell and you feel your face go red. Mrs. Butter smiles and nods handing you a single blanket. John smiles and turns to you, facing you as he puts the blanket over both of you. The two of you whisper conversations to each other until Mrs. Butter says if you don’t stop talking you can’t stay together. That makes both of you stay quiet, and so John takes your hand again and holds it before taking off his glasses and closing his eyes. You don’t take yours off, but you do curl closer to John and drift off to sleep.

When you wake up it’s time to do numbers and you find that numbers come really easy to you, but John struggles. When you are doing worksheets by yourselves, he’s biting on the end of his pencil and grabbing at his hair frustrated. “What’s wrong John?” He looks at you and sighs. “I don’t understand what this one is?” He points down to number six which you’ve already finished. You smile and think of how to explain. “See it’s 2,” you hold up two fingers on your left hand, “Plus 5.” You hold up five fingers on your right hand. “And then you just count how many there are.” He looks at your fingers and counts them, the tip of his fingers touching yours each time. “Is it… uh… 7?” You nod and smile. “Yeah!”

He laughs and bumps your shoulder saying; “Thanks Dave!” You continue to help John on his math, and Mrs. Butter gives you both a treat for helping each other out. When it comes time to English, you start having trouble reading the question. You are pawing at your hair and chewing on your pencil when John taps you on the shoulder. “Do you need help?” You look at him and nod. He scoots closer, and reads the question. “Space is we-wearing a space d-dress.” He points to the picture. “It’s a girl right?” You nod. “So then it’s this one!” He points to the word “she”. Your brain clicks and you understand. “Ohhhhh! Thanks John!” He smiles, and before you know it the two of you are done with your work. Mrs. Butter says she’s proud of the two of you for being so helpful to each other.

The two of you are packing up when your Bro comes in. He smiles at you and walks over. “Hey Lil’ man how was your first day?” You smile big and wide and pull on John’s arm who’d shied away. “This is John! And John is my best friend! We spent all day together and played together, and napped together, and John helped me with the worksheet, and I helped him with another!”

John is flushing and Bro is smirking at you. “Way to go Lil’ man.” He pets your head, and looks at John. “Is someone here to get you yet John?” He blushes and shakes his head. “Nu-uh.” Bro smiles and looks at you. You pout. “Don’t make me leave yet Bro! I don’t wanna go!” He pets your head and nods. “Alright Lil’ man we’ll wait for John here to be picked up.” John looks at him and then at you and smiles. The two of you sit back down and start talking about your next drawing.

“We should build a castle!” John smiles and puts out his hands wide. “And it’ll be huge! And tall! And we can build a moat! And it’ll have dragons, and fish!” You nod and smile. “And we can be the rulers! We’ll be kings! And we can fight off all the other bad people!” It’s as you and John are talking that your Bro meets Mr. Egbert. He walks over and smiles at your Bro, who grins and shakes his hand. “I’m Bro Strider.” He quirks an eyebrow. “I’m Dad Egbert.” Bro chuckles, and so does Mr. Egbert.

“Uh, seems like Dave took a liking to your son.” Bro smiles at Mr. Egbert who laughs. “Well, John usually gets attached easy. So how about we exchange numbers and we can have them have play dates. I’m usually free after seven. John goes to daycare after this.” Bro looks down at John and then smiles. “Yeah we’ll exchange numbers but feel free to let John come over and you can pick him up at 7 any time. I work from home, so if they ever wanna hang out that’ll be cool. Plus I don’t mind watching them.”

Mr. Egbert smiles, and pulls out his cell phone, and so does your Bro. This is when you and John notice, and walk over pulling on Bro’s leg. “I dun wanna go yet! I wanna stay with John!” John nods and looks at his dad. “Yeah Dad! I dun wanna go either! I wanna stay with Dave!” His dad chuckles and smiles, bending down and ruffling John’s hair. “I know John, but not today okay? But I’m giving our number to Mr. Strider here so you and Dave can hang out anytime okay? He even offered to watch you instead of you going to daycare.”

John perks up and looks at your Bro with wide eyes. “Really?” Bro nods, and you fist pump. “Yes! You’re the best Bro!” John high fives you. “Now that means I don’t have to stay with Jane!” You look confused, and his dad laughs. “Hey John, that’s your half-sister you are talking about. Be nice.” He pouts. “But she’s always in my room Dad!” He chuckles and shakes his head. “She’s your sister what do you expect.” Bro looks at his Dad and quirks an eyebrow. “How old is this sister of his?”

His dad looks at him oddly before answering. “She’s 8, she’s in the third grade class of Mr. Butter.” Bro laughs and shakes his head. “You can invite her over too if you want. She might get along with Dave’s brother Dirk. He’s in the third grade class of Mr. Butter as well.” His dad shakes his head and laughs. “Coincidences right?” You look at them confused, as Mr. Egbert checks his watch. “Alright John, we’ve got to go okay?” He pouts but you just hold his hand and smile. “It’s okay we can hang out sometime later!” He smiles and nods. “Alright!” The two of you give each other big hugs, before both Bro and Mr. Egbert pick the two of you up respectively.

Bro nods as you and John part, waving energetically. You are walking to the car when Bro looks down at you and smiles. “What’s up with the munchkin dude? I didn’t think you’d be making friends with dorks.” He smirks and you pout. “He isn’t a dork! John is my best friend and he’s great! I really like him!” Bro ruffles your hair and smiles. “Alright, well maybe he and you can hang out later this week. And maybe his sister will like Dirk and they can hang out. Lord knows he needs some friends.” You laugh and nod. “Dirk needs friends!” Bro straps you into your car seat in the back seat and you clap your hands.

“Can we get McDonalds?” He looks at you and sighs. “Alright Lil’ Man but tomorrow you are eating healthy got it?” You stick out your tongue and he laughs. “Whatever man.” The car starts and the two of you are off.

It isn’t until later on in the year that you and John decide that you are going to get married. Bro brought you and Dirk over to the Egbert’s for dinner since Mr. Egbert invited you. Dirk and Jane are in her room talking about robot’s and cooking while you and John are in his room building a wedding. He’s wandered into his dad’s room and pulled some of his best clothes, and the two of you are in suits that are way too big for you. John is holding your hands as his teddy sits between the two of you saying whatever priests say to get married.

John is sliding on the ring made of string when Bro and his Mr. Egbert open up the door. They look at the two of you and chuckle. Bro quirks an eyebrow. “What are you doin’ Lil’ man?” John answers for you. “Dave and I are getting married because we love each other!” You nod. “Yeah!” Bro looks at the two of you for a minute, before turning to Mr. Egbert who smiles at him. They whisper between each other which you later find out that Mr. Egbert said; “When the two of them are actually getting married to each other, we can definitely use this against them.” Bro laughed with Mr. Egbert before turning back to you.

“Alright well let’s pause the wedding and come eat dinner okay? And let’s put up Mr. Egbert’s good suits.” You pout, but nod. “Alright, but we’re still getting married!” John nods and the two of you slip out of the suits with your Bro and Mr. Egbert’s help. John’s hand slips into yours as you run into the kitchen for dinner, hopping up into your places while Jane and Dirk laugh at the two of you fighting about who won. “You guys are silly!” Jane laughs as Mr. Egbert sits down across from your Bro and nods to start putting together plates.

It’s while you and John are eating together with your families that you realize that John Egbert is the boy you are going to marry and have kids with. The two of you are sitting in his room in a pillow fort talking when he kisses your cheek. Your fingers touch it, slightly sticky from dessert. He grins at you big and wide and holds your hand. “I love you Dave! We’re gonna get married, and have kids! And we can have a girl and name her Casey!” You smile at him and nod. “Yeah!” It’s not until you are falling asleep in the pillow fort that you kiss John’s forehead and smile. “I love you too John.”

20 years later, and you are standing waiting for the vows to be said. Funny how some things work out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I saw [this post](http://ectobiologay.tumblr.com/post/51312522412/i-want-i-want-a-fic-i-want-a-fic-in-which-dave) and I meant to just write a simple one shot, but then the ideas got ahead of me so I’m making a whole other fic. Chapter updates will be much much slower than Degrees of Separation, especially since Degrees of Separation is still my main fic and still in hiatus. But well, I couldn’t /not/ do this. So yeah. Cross posted to [tumblr](http://echoingsentiment.tumblr.com/post/51357552287/20-years-of-falling-in-love-chapter-one). Updates will be tagged as 20yrs.


	2. A Knight & Heir

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Imagination goes a long way.

“Hey Dave, how do you do number 17?” John is sitting next to you on the floor of your apartment chewing on his pencil again. You look down at the worksheet again and scratch at your head with your pencil. “Uhm… it’s 9’s so hold up your fingers and do that trick I showed you.” He does what you tell him and nods. “36 right?” You nod and go back to your worksheet. Both of you are working on the worksheets that Mr. Butter has given you. You are in third grade, and surprisingly both of you have stayed in the same class each and every time.

Dirk and Jane are doing homework in the kitchen, and you are pretty sure that the truth of the matter is they are gossiping about the new kids that are coming to school tomorrow. John says they’re old friends of his dad’s. Practically like family. You aren’t that excited because if they’re like family that means John will be gone more, or have to hang out with them more than you. “John, I don’t want to do this right now.” You sigh, putting down your pencil as he looks at you, one of his front teeth missing. “Dave we have to do it. It’s due tomorrow.” 

You groan and collapse onto your back on the floor, hitting your head pretty hard. “Aghhhh.” You groan and rub your head angrily as John comes crawling over and looking at your head, hands petting it reassuringly. “Do you need ice?” You look up at him and shake your head. “Nope but a kiss will cure it.” The two of you laugh as he kisses your forehead and you give him the thumbs up. You sigh as he settles in beside you and your fingers lace together. “Math sucks.” He nods in agreement. 

Your eyes drift shut as numbers fly through your head. Multiples and addition and weird subtraction and carrying numbers; It’s all way too complicated for you. Not really, you understand everything that you are doing, and then some, but you pretend that it stresses you out so that John doesn’t feel bad about his problems in math. Even though he’s struggling you’ve been helping him with homework every day while you and John hang out after school until Mr. Egbert gets home from work. 

Because of the extra help, John’s grades have still stayed as A’s, as well as yours. Especially when he helps you with English and reading. You still haven’t exactly grasped the concepts of all the words and their meanings, meanwhile John is over there reading at a middle school level. In third grade! He says it’s cause he reads a lot. This is true, whenever you have free time and aren’t doing homework, you usually draw, and he reads. Sometimes he reads to you. Sometimes you both play castle and build forts. Other times you play house and get married again and again.

John rolls on top of you and looks at you with a smile. “Come on we’ve only got a few more questions to go. Afterwards we can go play castle.” You smirk and grab his sides, wiggling your fingers and laughing as he starts to snort and laugh harder than you. He’s super ticklish on his sides, where as you are only ticklish on your feet. And of course that’s where he’s trying to get, but you aren’t about to let him. He flails and kicks and you snort until he’s calling for mercy. “A-Ahhahaha O-Okay! S-Stahhhhahahaha Stop! I-I give!” 

You laugh and stop, and he goes limp in your arms, laying against your chest and breathing heavy. You giggle and he smacks your face lightly, groaning. “Not fair.” You smirk and ruffle his hair. “So fair.” Finally the two of you sit back up and finish your worksheets, this time actually wanting to get them done so that you can play castle. He asks a few more questions, and you help him as usual until both of you run down to Bro’s room and knock. “Bro! Bro!” John is calling through the door and you join him. “Bro! Bro! Bro!” Your voices echo in unison as the door opens and out steps Bro, laughing.

“What, what, what?” You both hand out your worksheets. “We wanna play so check our answers!” John talks for the both of you, and Bro takes the worksheets and looks them over. He stands there, going over things before looking down at John. “You didn’t just cheat did you?” John pouts. “No Bro! Dave helped me!” He looks at you and you nod. He smiles and ruffles both yours and John’s hair handing you back the worksheets. “You did good. Is that all the work today?” John nods and you follow. “Alright, go put stuff up and you can go play.”

You and John grin and run off to pack up your work in your backpacks. Afterwards you are both in your bedroom, building your castle. Today you are using blankets as the moat, pillows as the walls, and beanbags as your thrones. The top of the castle is made out of a blanket being draped over the pillows from the top of your window nook. You’ve used heavy books to keep it draped, and John and you are inside the fort discussing knightly missions.

“Do you wanna be the knight or the heir?” John asks you, smiling. But he’s got you confused. “What’s an ‘heir’?” He grins widely and pulls out one of his stored books. It’s got a bunch of weird symbols on it and some dragons. “It’s what they called a prince in the days where there were dragons!” Your eyes widened and he opened up the book to a page that had a pretty prince drawn on it. “Heirs were protected by their knights! Their knights swore their life to their heirs, promising they would die before they let anyone hurt the heir!” 

Your mind goes wild. You and John are in a large castle, and he’s on the throne that’s wooden and gold and has red seating. The walls are big and made of brick and concrete, and John has a crown made of gold and jewels. You are bending down on one knee, and pledging your life to your prince, the person you love most. You grin at him and smile. “I wanna be the knight! I wanna protect you from all the bad things cause I love you!” He smiles wide and nods, knighting you with his hand.

“I John Egbert, heir of…” He trailed off. “We need a name for the kingdom.” You frown. “Well what should we name it?” The two of you scrunch your eyebrows together and try to think of a name. Your hands are cupping your face and he is tapping his fingers to his skull. “I know!” He looks up brightly. “Look!” He flips through his book again and shows you a picture of a beautiful castle filled with gold. “They called it in the book, the kingdom of Pr-Prosperity! It was full of Pro-Prosper-Prosperity, which is like good stuff! It was called the Kingdom of Light! So why not… call it… Prosperity? No. Uh… Prosper, no. Perity. No.” “Prospit.” He looks at you for a minute and you blush. “It’s easier to say?” He smiles wide and nods. “Yes it’s perfect!”

You think for a minute, and it fits for John, but you don’t really think that Prospit fits for you. “But what about me? I don’t think I fit in Prospit.” He frowns, and the two of you go back to thinking. You feel more, reserved, darker than Prospit’s light. “I’ve got it!” You look back at him as he flips back through the pages. Eventually he lands on a picture of a dark black castle it looks silent, more reserved and you feel great about it. “What is it?” He smiles at you.

“It’s the Kingdom of Darkness! In the book it says that they were known for preparing for the Great War on Gaia, earth! They are constantly in a war with the Kingdom of Light. You can be a Knight from the Kingdom Of Darkness who’s fallen in love with the heir from Prospit and plans to defend him and to bring the Kingdom’s to peace!” 

You pause. “But we can’t just call it the Kingdom of Darkness. It needs a name!” He frowns, and you go back to thinking. “Well… the kingdom is supposed to be scarce of light. There’s a word for it that they used. Uh…” He flips through some pages and sounds out a word. “D-Dearth.” You frown. “That doesn’t sound right.” He nods. “But they use it with the word t-terse because evidently the kingdom is short of light too? I didn’t really understand. Maybe we can combine them and think of something?” You nod, and the two of you put back on your thinking caps. “Dearse. Deterse. Derse. De—“ “Derse!” You jump at him and nod. “Derse, it sounds so cool!” He smiles and his imagination runs wild.

Your eyes light up and you nod. “Yeah! But what about Jane and Dirk?” He thinks for a minute, and then his eye light up. “Jane can be the maid of Prospit! They said the maid was a really important part of the story in the book! And Dirk can be the prince of Derse!”

Already in your mind is a world forming, and you are itching to start drawing, and for John to tell you more about the Kingdom’s. “We’ll make our own adventure!” You nod and dig into the pile of books for your sketch pad and pencil. “Let’s start drawing!” The two of you settle into the beanbag throne and you start drawing. Prospit is a big kingdom full of beautiful gold and blue colors. And the clouds can tell the future. John’s dad is the King, and Jane is the maid who has special powers to heal people. Derse is a big kingdom full of dark purple and black, and the sky is always dark, crawling with monsters. The King is a dark figure that no one knows (it can’t be your Bro because he’s just your brother). Dirk is the prince in hiding, trying hard to overthrow the King to bring Derse to the light. He has special powers because he cares so much about people too.

John is the heir of Prospit, and he has power of the wind because he’s always wanted to fly. And you, you are the knight of Derse. “Don’t you want any powers Dave?” You look up from the drawing of Prospit you are making, as John writes down everything in a notebook. You shrug and shake your head. “I don’t really need powers do I?” He frowns at you and makes you look at him. “Of course you need powers, you’re my husband and everyone gets powers.” You sigh and think. “Well I don’t really know what I’d want.” He scrunches his eyebrows and chews on his pencil. “Well haven’t you wanted to do something before? Something cool and awesome?” You shrug. “I wanted to time travel like Marty McFly, into the future to see what stuff happens and then come back.” 

His whole face lights up and he cups your face with his sweaty fingers. “That’s it Dave! You can be a time traveler! Like Marty McFly! You can be a knight of time!” You look at him for a moment, and already an outfit is forming inside your head. It can have red, lots of red and black. And really cool armor. Your eyes light up with inspiration and you nod. “Yeah! I’ll be a time traveler that way you’ll always be safe!” John nods and goes back to writing down stuff about the Kingdom’s. You’ve decided that Derse and Prospit will always be at war over Skaia the world that Prospit and Derse are a part of. Skaia is a beautiful place in the middle of the two Kingdoms, where the sky and the earth meet.

You are drawing more of Prospit when you realize that John has fallen asleep beside you. You smile and put down your drawing, putting down his notebook and pencil. You adjust so the two of you are curled next to each other, and you cuddle into his side. He instinctively opens up and cuddles to you as well. You fall asleep almost instantly. You dream of being older, dressed in beautiful armor and pledging your life to John as the heir of Prospit. Dirk is fighting to rise to power in Derse and you’ve escaped to help rally troops from Prospit. 

On the way though you met John and saved him from bandits. He offered you a reward and took you back to the castle, letting you stay for a few days. During this time the two of you spend time together and you fall in love, going to the King and telling him you want to pledge your life to his son. He smiles and nods, and you are knighted by John who argues that he doesn’t want you to die. But you promise that you’ll never die because you can control time! The two of you kiss, and do the stuff that Bro says only happens between people that love each other, even though you don’t know what that is. 

You and John sleep for a long time, and you only wake up when John is being pulled away and you grip tighter to him. “Shhh Dave… it’s just me. I’m here to pick up John.” You blink your eyes and see a blurry Mr. Egbert. John is held between him and you and you nod, standing up and kissing John on the forehead, letting go of him and curling back up to go to sleep. Mr. Egbert leaves and Bro wakes you up for dinner an hour later. You are sleepy and eat a little bit before heading into the bathroom to do the rest of your night routine, including a bath and such. You are curled into bed holding onto your stuffed crocodile when Bro comes in with his cell phone.

“It’s John Lil’ man. He was super upset he didn’t wake up to say goodbye so he asked to say goodnight.” You yawned and hold out your hand for the phone which he hands to you. You wrap your hand around it and talk into the phone. “Hey John, what’s up?” He sniffs and you can tell he’s been crying. “I left without saying goodbye! I didn’t even get a goodbye kiss!” You smile. “Yes you did. I woke up and gave it to you before you left.” He pauses for a long time. “Okay then.” You laugh. “Are you going to be okay?” You are pretty sure he nods. “Yeah. But can I stay the night tomorrow since it’s Friday?” You look up at Bro. “John wants to know if he can stay the night tomorrow since it’s Friday.” 

Your Bro smiles and nods. “You know it’s fine like always.” You smile wide and nod. “Bro says it’s okay.” John smiles on the other end, and you can tell because of the way you hear his breath suck in through the hole in his teeth where he lost them. “Okay cool! Dad says I have to go cause it’s bedtime, but I wanted to call to say goodnight.” You yawn and smile. “Goodnight John.” He giggles. “Goodnight Dave! I love you!” You blush lightly. “I love you too.” The two of you say bye at the same time, and you hand the phone over to Bro who talks to Mr. Egbert about John staying the night.

You cuddle onto Nak your crocodile, and smile because your bed smells like John’s shampoo from the pillows you guys lay on after the beanbag got uncomfortable. You find yourself falling asleep quickly, your dreams filled of Skaia and the battlefield where the sky and the earth meet. Derse pops into your mind and you and Dirk are fighting off the monsters with those cool swords your Bro bought you and let you fight with. Dirk stakes one of their heads right before they’re about to kill you and you grin and give him a wink.

You wake the next morning with a grin, you had killed so many monsters with Dirk, and saved John from many a wound. You even froze time to spend lots of time with John, and reply amazing moments. In the end, you talk the whole time that Bro takes you and Dirk to school, the ride filled with your stories of Derse and Prospit. Even Dirk thinks it’s cool, and gives you a fist bump of proud brother. Bro says he can’t wait to see the drawings of Derse, and that he better have gone out fighting, because he doesn’t want anything to do with Derse but he still wants remembered. You promise to make him go down in history.

He ruffles your hair and makes sure you and Dirk have your lunch before waving to you as you run off towards the school. You catch up to John right as his dad drops him and Jane off. This is the last year that Dirk and Jane will be here, they graduate soon and then it’ll just be you and John getting dropped off in the morning. You and John hold hands as you walk down to your classroom. When you get there, both of you sit next to each other like always, and begin to talk about Derse and Prospit. You spend most of free time drawing the forest between the kingdoms as John writes down all the cool spells you can do.

You still have those drawings and notebook entries today.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I thought I'd give you all a second chapter of this. If you haven't been informed, I'm part of the Homestuck Shipping World Cup. I'm on Team DirkJake, so updates are really slow. Plus I just got a few interviews for jobs. As always you can find updates and drabbles about this fic on [ my tumblr ](http://echoingsentiment.tumblr.com) tagged 20yrs.


	3. Leaving

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You'll just have to wait.

“What?! No that’s not okay!” You can hear Dirk yelling at your older brother, his voice cracking with anger. You looked back at your current drawing trying not to cry. You’re a man and you can’t cry, not over something like this. “You don’t have a choice Dirk.” Bro’s voice is harsh and you can only imagine the stare down he’s giving Dirk. “Like hell I don’t! You can’t just take Dave and I and move us to Texas! We don’t even care about family down there! All of our friends are here!” You hear his voice pause, and then you hear the words you are trying not to think of. “Jake’s here Bro. John’s here. You can’t just take us away from them. Dave can’t even tell John at this point. Every time he tries he panics.” 

Your heart clenches and you wrap your fingers around your pencil harder, holding in a breath. Focus on the drawing. That’s what you tell yourself, looking down at the beginning of a more detailed drawing of a caged bird. You can still hear them yelling. “It’s not your choice Dirk!” You imagine that Bro is rubbing his temples by now. “That’s the problem! You don’t care about how we feel! We’ll be away from the people we love!” You hear silence and then an angry pounding of a fist hitting a table. “You will make other friends. It’s only for a year. This is the end of this discussion.” You hear Dirk growl and then yell. “I FUCKING HATE YOU!” You hear his feet stomp towards his room where he opens the door and slams it shut.

You tried not to cry, but just talking about it has you on edge. And now you’ve pretty much ruined your picture that you were drawing for John. You are 9 years old and in fifth grade, not once have you and John been separated. Now your brother is moving both you and Dirk to Texas to consult with family. You don’t know how to tell John because you don’t even know how to accept it yourself. You hear a soft knocking on your door and you sniff. “Go away.” You hear your brother sigh and then your doorknob turn. Your fists clench around your pencil and you ignore him as he comes in. “You doing okay lil’ man?” You throw your pencil at him. “No!” He sighs as you glare at him behind your shades fists clenched and ready to punch him in the face. He sighs and sits on top of your bed and you throw your sketch book at him before turning around and ignoring him.

You hear him sigh again and then hear the sounds of pages turning. He’s looking through your sketch book again and you feel like yelling at him to stop it when he speaks. “You’re really good at this Dave.” You look down at your feet and feel hurt. “I’m so proud of you lil’ man, you’ve done so well for so long. I’m so sorry.” You sigh and turn around and look at him. Your sketch book is beside him on the bed and his face is in his hands as he shakes his head. You can’t help but feel bad for being mad at him. He sighs again. “I really am lil’ man. I know you don’t want to do this, but we have too. It’s just for a year okay?” You give in at the sound of his voice cracking with tears. Dirk really made him upset. “I just don’t want to leave John.” Your voice is soft as you walk over to him and climb into his lap holding him in a tight hug. 

“I know lil’ man. John and Jane have been so good for you and Dirk. And then Jake and Jade, they’re good for you guys too. And just I wish that I could find a way to make it all work out. But I can’t because we have to go to Texas. I’m sorry.” You sigh and try not to cry into his chest. You fail as tears start to fall. “But I love John, and I don’t want to leave him!” You hear Bro sigh, and he lays a hand on your head petting your hair softly. “We’ll be back. You can call him every night. You can chat over the internet. You’ll be able to talk to him. It’s just for a year.” He reassures you again, before leaving you to your sketch book. It’s just for a year. You sigh and pick back up your pencil finishing the sketch you were working on for John.

Eventually you hear Dirk open up his door and walk in to apologize to Bro. Bro makes it up to him by buying him the robotic stuff he’d wanted. He makes it up to you by buying you the DJ equipment you’ve been staring at in the store window. You still haven’t told John and there’s a week left before you end up in Texas. You’ve decided you are going to tell him with a mix that you’ve been doing. Bro taught you how to mix music, and John’s given you recordings of his piano recitals that you’ve gone too. Together you’ve been doing a mix of your own, drawing the album artwork, and titling all the tracks.

Today you finished the last bit of artwork, touching it up on your computer. “Hey lil’ man, you doing okay?” You sigh as Bro walks in and looks over your shoulder. You’ve done the coloring and touchup’s of the album artwork, and you’ve made them into the right file to be printed. “I’m almost done, I just need to get taken to the store so I can get this printed. Then I just need to transfer the tracks onto a disk, and everything will be done.” He watches you move your mouse and finish coloring a photo of the moon and a crow. “You want a tablet sometime soon? It’d probably be easier than that mouse.” You nod and he ruffles your hair. “How’s John doing, have you uh…” He trails off and you cringe.

“I haven’t.” He sighs and you feel his weight shift as he bends down to your height. “Dave there’s only one day left to tell him, we leave Wednesday early in the morning.” You end up fucking up the texture on the wing and have to hit undo a few times. “I know okay, I just need to finish this and then I can tell him.” He sighs and you look at him rolling your eyes. “Just will you take me to the store in like an hour to get it printed?” He nods and stretches back up to his full height. “1 hour and we’ll go get it printed.” 

You nod and go back to texturing the wing before saving and switching to the other track artwork touching up little things. It’s less than an hour when you finish and you transfer it to a flash drive. Bro drives you up to the Office Depot where you have him buy the specific glossed paper and weighted paper so your images look great. He asks them to put a rush on it, and they promise it’ll be done within the next hour. “Well Dave, there goes the rest of your allowance for the next few weeks.” You shrug. “If it’s for John I don’t care.” He chuckles and hoists you onto his shoulders as you walk outside. 

Your fingers grab around his neck and you hum contently as he walks towards the pizza place down the street from the Office Depot. “Pizza okay with you lil’ man?” You nod, only to realize he can’t see you and hum a yes. “Dirk wants pineapple.” You cringe and make a grossed out noise. “I don’t get why he’s so set on pineapple as a pizza topping, it’s gross.” He laughs. “Pepperoni for us then?” You make an amused laugh your answer of “yes”. When you are halfway there, he pulls you from his shoulders and you two walk into the store together. He orders the two of you pizza buffet and a small pineapple pizza for Dirk.

It’s when the two of you set down, him with his two slices of pepperoni, and you with your four slices, that he finally asks you about telling John. “Why’d you put it off so long Dave?” You shrug and try not to think about it. “Because I know he’ll be sad and I don’t want him to be sad. Because when he’s sad he does this thing where he cuts everyone off for a week or so. So I thought if I told him the day before we leave, he would be away for a week while we unpack, and then we could go back to talking every day.” He smiles at you and you shrug as he wipes his mouth and scratches at the stubble he calls a beard.

“I can’t say that ain’t sound logic lil’ man.” You roll your eyes and eat your pizza in silence again. He sighs when you are almost done and apologizes. “We’ve got family in New York, that is coming to Texas to live with us for a year while they find a place up here to stay. I promised I’d support them in Texas cause we’ve already got a house down there. An apartment really. An apartment complex. I just, you and Dirk are never interested in finances, or family. But you’ve got family that are important.” You are quiet while he continues to talk.

“We’re set with money, our family, their family. But they need a year in Texas to disappear completely. See they got in some trouble with her husband. And I suppose I can’t blame him after all, finding out that his kids ain’t his kids. Which is probably nothing you need to know about but I don’t know how to tell you or Dirk.”

“See when I was younger before you two came into being I was sixteen and I was dating your mom and she got pregnant and had Dirk and… your older sister. Fraternal twins, her names Roxy and I think you’ll like her a lot. We didn’t get married because we were too young, and three years later she had you and Rose, fraternal twins again. Rose is a little different than you I think you might not get along. But she uh, she and I didn’t really get along anymore after that so she took the girls and I took you and Dirk. And she got married to this guy she’d been dating while she was with me. He was positive Rose was his cause they’d been dating for a year. But…”

He sighs and you realize that things have always been complicated for him. “They get married and now years later he realizes he’s not the dad of Rose because he can’t donate some of his bone marrow to her for a recent injury. And so he’s furious and things have gotten abusive, so I just. I can’t let your mom down like that I gotta keep her safe even if we don’t feel things anymore for each other. And we just gotta make sure they don’t get followed up here. So I promise it’s just for a year lil’ man. I promise.”

You know he’s talking about important things but you don’t really understand. You won’t understand until you are in your later years. You gently pat his hand and smile, “It’s okay. It’s just a year, Dirk and I will be fine!” He looks as if the world has suddenly lifted from his shoulders and you seem him smile for the first time in a long time. “You’re right lil’ man, you are always right.” He buys you a vanilla milkshake on the way back to Office Depot, which you are happily sipping at when he pulls up your artwork. 

Your artwork has been produced and made into a hard cover book like you wanted in a little over an hour or so. You don’t want to touch it, but the picture of a blue bird on the cover is enough to make you happy. It looks really great and you know the attendant is complimenting you but you don’t care because now you can give John his mix. You are quiet on the drive home, not touching anything until you’ve washed your hands of grease and filth. When your hands are finally clean you go through the art book and are happy with each title and album piece. It takes 20 minutes for you to burn the CD, and another 50 to draw the artwork on the CD.

Dirk comes in ten minutes after you’ve finished to tell you that John is here with Jake to hang out. “O-O-Okay.” You stutter for the first time in a long time, and you take a deep breath making sure the CD and art are ready, before John comes bounding into your room and tackles you onto the floor. “Everyone keeps acting like you and Dirk are leaving or something and I don’t understand why and it’s making me sad Dave!” You sigh lightly and push him off a bit apologizing. “It’s cause I should have told you something a long time ago.” His face drops and you panic slightly but steel yourself because you were prepared. You pull out the art book and the CD and hand them to him. “What’s this?” He looks it over and looks back at you. “They’re for you. I drew all the artwork and I mixed the tracks. They’re for when you miss me the most.”

“Miss you?” It sounds as if all happiness has drained from him and you nod slowly. “Bro and Dirk and I are moving to Texas for a year. It’s only for a year though so we’ll be back. So I made you a CD to help when you miss me.” He stares for a long time at the CD and at you back and forth back and forth before he stops and starts crying. “But I don’t want you to go!”

You panic and try to hug him only for him to push you away. “No why didn’t you tell me this isn’t fair when are you leaving I don’t want you to leave!” He’s crying hard and not breathing between his sentences and you feel panic settle in. “We’re leaving Wednesday early in the morning. We’re renting our house out while we’re gone so everything here stays except clothes and stuff we want to take with us.” He starts crying louder and it grabs the attention of Jake and Dirk who come in and ask what’s wrong. “John ol’ chap what’s wrong?” Jake and his accent still take some getting used to, but you completely understand now.

John shakes his head and cries louder. “Dave and Dirk are leaving for a y-ye-year!” Jake’s face falls and he grows upset as well. “I know John, but they’ll be back in a year! We’ll just have to message them every day and send presents all the time! It’ll only be for a year, and Dirk told me that Dave made you a mix CD for all the times you get lonely. He said that Dave worked on it really hard.” John sniffles a few times, and then wipes at his face with his fists before you grab the Kleenex on your desk and hand him some. He takes them, blots at his face, and blows his nose before speaking again. “It’s only for a year?” You nod and Jake nods. “It’s only for a year mate, everything will be back to normal in a year.” John nods softly and Jake nods as he and Dirk walk out leaving you two to talk some more.

“You made the CD for me?” You nod and he looks at it again. “I’m not gonna listen to it till you are gone. Cause then I’ll miss you less.” You nod and he ends up hugging you for most if not the rest of the time you two hang out. You watch Ghostbusters and Con Air despite their being shit, until John falls asleep on top of your chest. You smile and curl up next to him sleeping as well. It doesn’t occur to you that this is odd. It doesn’t occur to you that anything about your relationship is odd at all. Bro wakes you up long after you’ve been asleep and you and John hug for a long time before Mr. Egbert takes him and Jake back home. You say bye to Jade and Jane when Mr. Egbert picks John and Jake up.

You only had to wait one year for everything to be back to normal.

You end up waiting 5.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Random update for something other than Degrees of Separation. Cross posted to tumblr as always.


End file.
